Scripture Lesson for May 14, 2023 Acts 10:1-11:18
In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, ‘Cornelius.’ 4He stared at him in terror and said, ‘What is it, Lord?’ He answered, ‘Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.’ 7When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.
9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13Then he heard a voice saying, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 14But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.’ 15The voice said to him again, a second time, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 16This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.
17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon’s house and were standing by the gate. 18They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. 19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Look, three men are searching for you. 20Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them.’ 21So Peter went down to the men and said, ‘I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?’ 22They answered, ‘Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.’ 23So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging.
The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. 24The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshipped him. 26But Peter made him get up, saying, ‘Stand up; I am only a mortal.’ 27And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; 28and he said to them, ‘You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. 29So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?’
30 Cornelius replied, ‘Four days ago at this very hour, at three o’clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. 31He said, “Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. 32Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.” 33Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say.’
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
Chapter 11 Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. 2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, 3saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ 4Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. 6As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 8But I replied, “By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” 9But a second time the voice answered from heaven, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 10This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, “Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.” 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 17If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?’ 18When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, ‘Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.’
Sermon: “Who Gets the Holy Spirit?” Rev. Peter Hofstra
We are witnessing a huge ‘first’ in the church in this passage. The Acts of the Apostles is full of ‘firsts’ as it records the birth and development of the church. In this case, it is all about the Holy Spirit and the church spreading to the Gentiles. This is the fundamental shift of which we are beneficiaries today. In fact, we are in a time when the message of Jesus does take root in a Jewish population, we see that as something new and different.
But whereas we pretty much take it for granted, the Holy Spirit coming to ‘us’, for the people reading Luke’s sequel, this is a huge thing. It takes up a huge part of our passage. There is a vision sent to Peter, repeated three times, to lead him to understand that what was ‘unclean’ is made clean in our Lord Jesus. There is the angel, the man in bright white clothes, sent to Cornelius, a Roman army officer, to send for Peter. This officer might be seen by his colleagues as ‘going native’, given the descriptions of his service and support of the Jews of whom he is an occupier. The centerpiece of the story is the Holy Spirit coming upon Cornelius and his household, but then the bigger question for that time is taken up again. Jewish believers come at Peter for breaking the law of Moses. Peter, in turn, lays out the steps by which God has led the church to fulfill the promise given in the Holy Spirit, that it would spread from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to ‘the ends of the earth’.
For us, looking back, it should seem so obvious. This is the natural progression. The next organizational step in the church will be the assignment of Paul as a primarily Gentile missionary among the apostles.
The centerpiece, as I said, seems to be the moment when the Holy Spirit comes down upon Cornelius and his household. This is a little different from what came before. Up to this moment, baptism in water appears to have preceded the coming of the Spirit. Up until now,
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’
What we have in this moment appears to be an instant community of faith. We do not know exactly how many of the household of Cornelius was gathered. But they were blessed as a body by the coming of the Spirit. And while the Holy Spirit may not have come down in the appearance of flames upon their heads as at Pentecost, it was still evident. The circumcised believers were able to discern that the gift of the Holy Spirit is being poured out to all who are hearing Peter’s words.
The pivotal moment then seems to be the call for their baptism by water, the visible sign of their being ‘set apart’. Peter pushes on this issue. They have the Spirit, he says, can their baptism by water then be denied? Another way to look at it, Jesus has picked them. Are we going to argue with Jesus? Anyone? Anyone?
Somebody did. That is why the episode carries over into chapter 16. There were a bunch of Monday morning quarterbacks trying to critique Peter’s decision. Notice how he has to walk back through everything that happened.
How does this whole episode speak to us today? On the one hand, it is obvious. This is the moment when the church blows the boundaries of the Promised Land and the Chosen People and the universal call of grace by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is made real. But on the other, the whole argument among the early church over this spreading of the Spirit speaks to the very nature of the Holy Spirit.
In our understanding, the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. God’s self revelation as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” is practically rote in our minds for the number of times we hear it. But here these people are, fighting over it as a foundational condition of the church. Which for them it was, but how about for us? We might agree it SHOULD be, but is it? Is it really?
To understand the mission of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand that this was the promise Jesus made to the disciples for Pentecost. Hang out in Jerusalem until something happens. Something wonderful. Okay. It is something that creates a discernible difference in the lives of those who receive the Spirit. Okay. But how do we really understand what this abstract person-part of God truly is?
The short answer is “Jesus with us”, or Emmanuel if you like the Hebrew. It is not just hearing the message of faith that Peter was sharing, but internalizing it. Lots of people, including us, hear the promise of Jesus. It sounds great, it is a promise we can accept. But it takes the Holy Spirit to fundamentally shift something in our beings.
So as we live in the world as people of faith, the Holy Spirit seems a pretty handy power boost. I have to admit, it seems a lot easier to see in other people, ‘blessed’ people, than I can see it in myself. I am…me. Jesus loves me, this I know, but am I surrendering to the Spirit to direct where I go?
As we read about the Holy Spirit coming down upon Cornelius and his household, as we read about the Holy Spirit sending Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch last week, as we see the progress of the Holy Spirit in Acts, there is another piece that is easy to overlook. It is the frame of mind and spirit of the recipients of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
A lot of people hear the Word of God and do not react in a positive way. Back in Acts 6 and 7, there is a whole group of people who stone Stephen to death in the face of one of the most compelling testimonies in the entire book of Acts.
Cornelius was already pursuing the faith as best he could, as a Gentile and the officer of a foreign army. He is described this way: He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. In fact, this very phrase is repeated when the angel comes to him and answers why he is chosen. That’s what I meant by the observation earlier that his cohorts and colleagues may have seen him as ‘going native’, pursuing the life and beliefs of the people he is intended to keep in subjugation. It is a powerful testament to the power of Jesus that this man, this officer of the Italian cohort, is the one whom the Spirit will ‘turn’ to the power of Jesus.
In addition to him, the Ethiopian eunuch was hungry for this faith. He was reading the prophet Isaiah in vain, trying to unravel the meaning of the worship he’d participated with in Jerusalem. Maybe that is where our difficulty lies in this day and age when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Maybe it is not a question of figuring out who or what the Spirit is exactly. Maybe its questioning how we develop a hunger for this Spirit, a hunger for the wonder and majesty of our Lord Jesus, a hunger to take this magnificent gift we have received and pass it forward.
Is that the root of the doubts that take hold of us? Wondering if there is something we can do? Are we too small a group? Are we too…experienced…in the timing of life? Are we too tired? I have this personal debate going on, a two pronged debate. First, am I in a place where I am so busy overthinking that the Spirit is because I am just too fatigued at the prospect of what it means to fully embrace what the Spirit does? Second, if I had the hunger for the Holy Spirit that seems so obvious in the lives of those who are receiving it in the book of Acts, would I be hung up on over-thinking things? Or would the way forward be far clearer?
There is something that is ‘dad-joke’ funny in all this. It has been a running gag how we Presbyterians like to eat, in social gatherings, in meetings, wherever. Now, I am suggesting that we need to be pushing to be hungry for the Spirit?
For people raised in the faith, it is like we know so much of this stuff, on some level. It has been a lifetime of preaching, of singing, of worshiping, of praying, of being in community. I have no doubt the Spirit is at work and living in our congregation. Maybe we need to be praying for the kind of hunger that these people have in the Book of Acts to activate this Spirit once again in our lives.
One of the most heartfelt prayers in the Gospel comes from a man whose child was deathly ill. Jesus was his last shot. But he was there more out of desperation than he was out of faith. His prayer was one he cried out, ” Lord, help me in my unbelief!” I suggest we are coming from a place where the faith of Jesus is within us. Yet, maybe we can touch that desperation. “Lord, make me hungry to live this faith!”
As I consider Cornelius, I see an advantage he has as a newcomer to the faith and to the Spirit. He is receiving the Good News of salvation as given in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!! Now take a minute and look at the reality around us, just how much there is ‘out there’ for people of faith to tackle in the name of Jesus. It is overwhelming. I suggest that lacking a hunger for the Holy Spirit is not a lack of Spirit, but being overwhelmed by the nature of the world that needs redemption from sin.
I can pray, “Lord, make me hungry to live this faith…” Then list what and where and how our faith needs to be brought to bear to change the world. It is overwhelming. That is why church revival literature talks about the vision statement, find that one thing that your congregation can hone in on. Which is great, but what if the prayer for a hunger, for a purpose in the faith, is drowned out by the needs of so much going on?
How do we talk to God, call out to God, pray to God to even get started? Have you heard the advice, I have probably preached it from up here, of coming quietly into the presence of the Lord and listening for God’s Word? So easy to say, so hard to do when we really open ourselves to what the power of God needs to fix in the world around us.
There is one writer who speaks of the way to begin before the Lord is with the ‘Simple Prayer’. That name is so deceiving. The way he describes it makes me think it would be better described as the “dump truck prayer. Metaphorically, taking everything and anything that is piled on our minds and in our hearts, and our prayer being a rambling, disjointed,disconnected dumping out of everything regardless of priority, “appropriate” language, relative or actual importance, life-saving to trivial, tipping the dump truck of the stuff of our lives that keeps us worried, locked down, tired, overwhelmed, into the lap of the Lord.
I think the image of prayer being ‘coming into the throne room of the Lord’ may do us a disservice, because the image of Heaven’s throne room, who wants to mess that up? But until we do, I don’t know how we regain our hunger for the Spirit. How we sort through what overwhelms us, or rather, dump it on the Lord to sort out. How we even begin to rejoice in the efficacy of prayer in unleashing the Spirit because we do not pour out the full honest mess that is life in prayer.
For Cornelius and his household, it was their hunger for the Spirit that made it an undeniable reality for the circumcised believers to see that they, those people, the Gentiles, also received the Spirit. For us, it is about knowing that hunger and daring to embrace it. It is about dumping everything in our lives that has gotten in the way into a prayer that we can then lay before our God. It is about doing what it takes to that people looking in on this intrepid band of believers will be the witnesses that the Holy Spirit is alive and well among us. It begins with three words of power, “Let Us Pray…”
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